While the Government engages an increasingly-agitated International Community, especially 'Election-India' seeking a ceasefire in and around the 'safe zone' in the Wanni, the Mahinda Rajapaksa administration also seems to be pressing for an endorsement from home that it is on the right track in defeating the separatist LTTE once and for all.

Towards this aim, the government decided to call for elections in the different Provincial Councils, ahead of schedule - and ahead of the General Elections that are due within the next 12 months.

Next weekend, the Western Province, the most populous and, just like the Eastern Province, the most multi-ethnic, goes to vote to elect a new Provincial Council. Clearly, the Government seeks to win the election on the strength of the recent military successes against the LTTE. These Provincial Councils have become the nurseries for the nation's Legislature taking over from the local councils like the municipalities and pradeshiya sabhas that have now been relegated to third place in the national political hierarchical structure of elected representatives.

The elections, however, once again raise the issue - what use these councils have been to man or beast. Many provinces have been economically and environmentally raped by their own council members, with the Supreme Court having to regularly intervene to stop the rot. In this issue, we report how Rs. 33 billion was spent last year alone on the Western Province - 87% going for recurrent expenditure like salaries of those employed by the council, and only a meagre 13% for development work. The report states that as many as 129 schools have been shut down in the Western Province alone. And a fortnight ago, we reported how the Minister of Education crammed an extra classroom into a school in Kiribathgoda breaking all the rules in the book at the insistence of a political organiser of the ruling party.

There was - and is - a need for decentralisation of power from Colombo (centre) to the periphery (provinces), but are the Provincial Councils delivering the goods? Have they done so for the past 20 years? When the Bar Association has its annual 'Law Week' in Colombo, the bulk of the ordinary folk who attend still keep asking for ways and means of obtaining their pensions, national ID cards or birth certificates. So much for two decades of devolution.

The shame of it all is that the very parties that opposed the introduction of the Provincial Councils back in 1987 are now feverishly contesting for seats in them, while the Government sees the elections as a means to a political end of its own. All parties must spare a thought for the future of local-level politics. Some salutary measures are being adopted in reversing the local government council law to return to the old ward system where the councillor is actually 'one with the people' unlike today under the proportional representative system. There is indeed some pressure from the International Community, led by India to implement the 13th Amendment fully towards devolution of power. The Government that is steadfast in the elimination of the LTTE, ignoring calls for a ceasefire, must, likewise, be steadfast in ensuring that what it does on this front too, is for the benefit of the people.

Germ Terror

Most of the country's ills are blamed on the northern insurgency, but often this is a convenient excuse for sheer inefficiency - and corruption.

The spread of a mealy bug commonly known as the 'piti makuna' because it resembles a powder, first devouring the sacred 'temple flower' (Araliya) and extending its tentacles to other plants and now fruits like papaw etc., is affecting the cost-of-living.

Not so long ago, a type of grass imported supposedly for dairy farms in the highlands, spread a virus to indigenous grass. Customs officials have been dilly dallying in meting out punishment to the culprits - in fact, they are protecting them. Now they say the 'piti makuna' arrived from southern India. This was said of the dreaded Chikungunya as well. So then, what steps were taken by the authorities to stop it?

When SARS and avian flu made headlines in the world media, the Health Department's Epidemiology Unit was galvanised into action and airports were alerted to be on the look-out for suspects. This time around, everyone seems to have been napping.

That apart, the whole Government machinery now dealing with the outbreak seems inadequate. Once there were Agricultural extension officer to assist farmer families with these issues. Now, they have the little Agricultural Research and Development Advisers, but their priority is to collect taxes from farmers, not help them with their problems. There is one adviser for 5000 farmers. Before someone starts blaming the LTTE for starting germ warfare in Sri Lanka, a concerted effort is required to stem the further ruination of this country's vegetation.